Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I spent a very long and exhausting day doling out antibiotics, mouth cleanup and pain meds to a load of severely abused imported mambas. They have been crudely de-fanged (though in only one case with actual success on both sides) and their mouths look like they have bitten into a live grenade, with shattered and protruding lower jaw bones. The lighting I had to work under was not so good, so I'm not too optimistic about how the photos turned out. I'll be posting some from the vet clinic in a few days as I have the time.

The three worst cases (two blacks and a Jameson's) went home with me so that they can recieve intensive daily care and operations in the clinic. I wish it could have been more but space and personal budget are only going to stretch so far. *sigh* I left the rest with a buttload of antibiotics and a shot of pain meds and I'll check back up on them when I can drive down there again. If I am very very lucky I may be able to offload these guys when they are well recovered for something like half or a third of what it cost to put them back together.

If anyone wants an educational opportunity in Central Florida, a limited number of spectators (like, one or two) can be allowed into the vet hospital when we work on these guys. Veterinarians, vet students, vet assistants and techs get first dibs.

I posted some photos from the last batch of mambas that came in with this type of injury, and wrote up some notes from one of our "success story" patients, an Eastern green. Click below to see photos, x-rays and notes from last year's case. The current photos will be up soon.
Mamba de-fanging

You're a saint MsTT...

I am a south African vet tech that is obviously highly pissed off by this. If there is any thing I can do to help, please ask....I have veterinary exp..and mamba exp. good luck,don ps. cant donate money, cause I am a vet tech and trying to go vet school pps. I live in CA

As a vet tech, you can join the venomvet list at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/venomvet/ to discuss the special veterinary needs of venomous snakes. The list is open to anyone working in veterinary medicine including techs and assistants, and to people working professionally with venomous snakes (zoo, venom lab, university, etc).

If there is any exporter of venomous snakes near you, perhaps you can educate them in regards to how NOT to treat mambas. That would help a lot if you can actually get through to these people.

It's so heartbreaking to see these animals treated this way. I can't think of a crueler way of rendering a hot "harmless". Venomoid surgery almost seems compassionate compared to this. I'm not religious at all, but if I was, I'd be praying for these snakes like I would any person. So let's just say they are in my thoughts and hopes.

AP

I love Ceftazidime. On Friday these mambas had nasty infected mouths and exposed bones. By Monday, after two shots of Ceftazidime and daily mouth debriedment with Nolvasan and ascorbic acid/zinc gel plus NeoPreDef powder, good granulation tissue had already begun to form over the bones.

X-rays showed mostly soft tissue trauma with the exception of one animal that had a pretty serious greenstick fracture of one of the lower mandibles and had been completely de-fanged. The cool thing is that the fracture was exposed and clearly visible on Friday and granulation tissue has covered it completely so that the vet only got to see it on the x-ray. No damage to the upper maxilla as we feared, so the fangs should grow back and the animal will be fully intact again in short order.

I'll be posting some of the pics and radiograph images on the site fairly soon, but in the meantime click here to see some other cases we've treated. There's a neat little slide show that includes some other pics from the vet clinic.
Snake Getters Venomous Rescue